Tale Of The Ill-Fated Brothers
by Alaer
Summary: What would happen if the Dragneel brothers never separated, despite still meeting Igneel and Natsu's ressurection? If Natsu never met Makarov, and never joined the guild, how much it would change the story and characters, and how would he meet them? Warning! Shonen-ai, incest (nothing sexual)
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! So...I know I should be updating Fairy Heart, but I was stuck with this idea in my head for far too long to ignore it any longer, so I wrote a test chapter if anyone would be interested.**

 **The summary would be that the Dragneel brothers never separated even after Natsu becoming E.N.D. and meeting Igneel, therefore never meeting Makarov Dreyar and never joining Fairy Tail. Same for Zeref, never leaving Natsu, never being so dangerous with his curse as both he and Natsu were watching out for it, still teaching Mavis and her friends magic tho since that would change too much of the plot if it wasnt there xD Something I imagined would happen for example to Lucy if it wasnt for Natsu and how would he meet the Fairy Tail members, and if he would ever join the Fairy Tail that arose without Natsu in there.**

 **Still, Im not gonna change the main pairing, since as much of a fan of Zervis as I am, I wanted to test out Zeretsu pairing since its very cute too, or at least I imagine it to be :D And I also wanted to know if Im the only one who ships it or not :D**

 **So please, tell me if you want me to continue this story or not, and if you got some idea for some side pairing, Im willing to listen :)**

 **Well, Enjoy reading!**

* * *

The sun lighted up the green forest below, letting the leaves half absorb and half reflect the warm light, with the wind carrying softly across the whole place those, which have fallen. Birds sang a melodic song followed by the calming sound of a river, that cut the forest in half. This few kilometers big gathering of trees lies near a town in middle of nowhere, under a steep reef where the town stands.

Despite the beauty of the scenery, rich water sources and tempting seclusion, no one from the town dared to visit the area.

Why, you might ask?

The reason was simple. Because of the exotic setting.

Trees with enormous roots that almost created a labyrinth, plants no one could recognize with their veins filled with poison, ready to strike anyone who came in their range. Wild animals that lived only in that one place, scary with their almost armed-like appearance and hostility.

There were tries from the city to annihilate every single one of the beasts, so they could get access to the pure water and tree crowns as shields from the cruel sun that shone on the devastated desert surrounding them. True, the water flowed through the town, towards the reef and creating an enchanting waterfall, which continued as simple river once reaching the forests ground. However, the surface it occupied in the town was too small for every citizen, and everyday there were struggles for drinkable water and available food, as not much of those were present in withered wasteland, making the poor townspeople be on the edge of extinction every day. Few brave individuals in desperation for resources to survive tried to overcome the place's challenges, but each failed, and no one who entered ever came back.

The place became known as cursed, and none man or woman ever came near to this day, unaware that two little boys found their home in the forest after countless tragedies, which brought them there. The doomed area provided them with safety from the outside world, and they both believed that they will be left alone there in peace for eternity.

Until the day they were proved wrong.

* * *

A raven haired man laid on grass, in front of a humble cottage, letting the soft wind caress his hair. The serene expression on his face hinted that he was asleep, even though he was more aware of his surroundings than anyone could ever guess.

He sensed the heat of the sunlight, followed by the chill of the wind, and the silky, cold greenish carpet made from grass under him. These ethereal surroundings were all it took for the young man to feel at complete peace, forgetting about everything else….

"Napping outside again? You will catch a cold that way, ya know" …including his sibling, who went to gather something for lunch earlier. He cracked one of his eyes open and glanced at the wooden basket in the other's hands, filled with all kind of colorful fruits and one already skinned animal they were probably gonna grill later on.

Then he realized he still didn't answer his little brother, noticing his look of suspicion and quickly thought up some excuse. "It's not healthy to stay inside all the time, people should get out on the sun once in a while too." He heard a chuckle once he finished his sentence, and now fully looked at his sibling confusedly.

"You stay under a roof only at night to sleep because you are afraid of wolf packs that roam around, if not for them, you are outside all the time."

He blushed at the accusation, yet he knew he couldn't deny the fact that it was true, but it's not like he was _afraid_ of wolves, he just didn't like the possibility of facing them when they were hungry.

Which was mostly at night, since that was their time to hunt for prey.

And he didn't want to be marked as a prey, that's all it was.

Really.

.

.

.

He ignored the way Natsu was staring at him and shifted his attention elsewhere. He heard a sigh from somewhere above him, and noticed the quiet steps around his head that aimed towards the little house behind him.

"I'm gonna prepare some food, try to not die out of laziness!" his brother shouted while retreating deeper into their home, and Zeref just grumbled in acknowledgment, putting his hands under his head and closing his eyes, getting ready for yet another nap.

* * *

"Come back here you little bitch!" someone shouted in middle of the street, getting lots of attention from the present people witnessing the event, however that didn't bother the young girl, who just pushed through all of them and ran forward as fast as she could, not minding the stinging in her lungs or the protests of her bounded legs.

She was followed by plenty of armed men clothed in metal armor that glittered under the light, but she paid no mind and continued pressing forward through the waves of people. She didn't dare to look behind her, because she knew that if she did that, it would probably be her end.

Her name was Lucy, and she was a slave to one of the royals here, since she was tricked by wizard who called himself Salamander and sold to slavery. Once, she was a wizard too, a celestial mage to be exact, however her keys were confiscated by the horrible man and thrown mercilessly into the deep ocean, few meters away from the port of Hargeon, where she was captured.

Since the day she was brought here she tried to escape, and failed many times, each followed by cruel punishment of her owner, but that didn't break her iron will, and she believed that even if many fails were yet to come, from every single one of them she would learn and one day, she will success.

And she believed the day was now and kept running until she was out of town.

However, she was just a slave, locked up in the royal's home, and so she was unaware of how the town surroundings looked like, since despite her many tries she never got this far. Lucy haven't got a place to hide in the empty desert, and she already saw the end of the river that lead to the rumored forest filled with death and despair.

"We've got her now!" someone from behind her shouted, and she stopped at the edge of the reef, facing two fears no one dared to face, getting a choice to choose the less horrible one. The men were coming closer, shortening her time for decision and in panic she thought _"Should I jump and try my luck, or stay there for the rest of my life?"_ A fast shaking of her head as she changed her view of the armed men towards the cursed forest, and while taking a deep breath, she jumped down where the waterfall ended and switched back to river, feeling someone's hands brushing past her hair, yet unable to catch her and she realized how close she was to another punishment as she fell, observing how she was closer and closer to the surface of the river while wondering why does it feel like eternity when her fall should be pretty fast.

The second she was almost touching the river with her feet she took another deep breath, closer her eyes and waited for the impact. As she felt she was underwater she quickly started kicking her legs and using her hands in order to swim up. She didn't count on the strong stream the river had near the waterfall and was being carried further and further against her will, and at one point, everything grew black as she couldn't defy the flow anymore.

Meanwhile at the steep reef…

"So she escaped?" a man who sat on some small version of throne that was being carried by various half naked men asked his personal guards, disappointment clearly written all over his face.

The guards just nodded, stiffing as they heard deep growl their master released.

"Go and find her! Now!" he ordered, aware of the forest's past of killing everyone who dared to enter, but not risking any chances of her possibly leaking the information about the slavery trade to the outside world.

He allowed his small army to go back to the palace and get some better equipment for what they were to face in there, along with horses since they had to bypass the reef, which would take around two days minimally.

He sighed, silently hoping the girl met her terrifying end in the doomed place, so he could be assured that their business was safe.

* * *

He was woken by someone calling him while shaking with his body unnecessarily roughly, and he opened his eyes in annoyance, looking straight at his younger brother who shared the same expression.

"What is it? Is the food prepared yet?" he asked begrudgingly, sitting up and rubbing the sleep off of his eyes with his arm.

"No, and that's why I'm waking you up, I need you to watch out for it for a while, since I forgot to bring water, can you stay awake long enough for me to return?" the other teased, aware of the silent curses Zeref was probably chanting in his mind right about now.

"Yeah yeah, go on" he encouraged half-heartedly, getting up on his feet and walking towards the cottage while muttering what were undoubtedly ways how to punish his little brother for disturbing his sleep.

Natsu smiled fondly while watching him go inside, he grabbed the empty barrel and put it on his shoulder, walking towards the river.

He and his brother were from village far away from here, but were casted away once the villagers found out Natsu was a demon, and they ran away the moment the people attempted to kill them both. Zeref was already teenager when it happened, while Natsu small kid, barely 7 years old. At first, the distance between them was about 6 years, but their parents including Natsu died when both of them were still very young, and his older brother just refused to accept the reality.

He brought Natsu back, getting himself a curse that took forever for them to lift, and now they were both around 17 or 18 of human age. Zeref was aging normally, and since Natsu still had his original human body, it was the same for him. Even though demons were supposed to live for thousands of years, once Natsu's body grew old and would not be able to contain his power anymore, he will die just as any human would.

There was still the fact that since he was brought back between living by his brother's magic, the second that magic vanishes -or simply said, Zeref dies- Natsu will vanish as well.

But none of them minded it too much, they were content with what they got, as they were not supposed to spend even all of these years together since Natsu should have been dead a long time ago.

Along their path, they met a red dragon named Igneel, who taught young Natsu a fire dragon slayer magic which helped him to use his original fire magic to wider extent.

He smiled as he started gathering water into the barrel while reminiscing the old memories of their little adventure, but stopped abruptly as he noticed flash of gold color in pure blue. He put the barrel on the ground and searched for the source, only to find a blonde girl almost drowning on the other side of the river bank.

Hastily, he jumped into the river, grumbling about getting his clothes wet, and swam towards her, carefully hoisting her up over his shoulder and bringing her to lie next to the barrel to examine her state.

She was covered in bruises everywhere he could see without the tattered rag -which was probably supposed to be clothing- getting in the way. On her legs were two metal shackles bound by a chain together. Same on her hands, only with the difference that the chain was broken.

Unsure of what to do, he took on one shoulder barrel filled with water and on the other the woman and began to head back to his older brother, hoping he would know what to do with her.

* * *

 **So, so, what did you think? Good idea/bad?  
**

 **Leaving it up to you guys!**

 **Alaeriiis! :)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow, I cant believe that someone was actually interested with the story while it had Zeretsu ship slapped on it.**

 **Im really thankful about that you know, and even though I know I should be updating Fairy Heart right about now, I wanted to let you know that your voice did reach me and I will continue this, just as you want :)**

 **To be honest, I expected like...max 1-3 favs/follows? and heck I got 11/13 on the first chapter with 8 reviews...thats really astonishing for me, and I wanted to thank you for supporting this idea, it means a lot to me :)**

 **Not to mention I dont feel like a weirdo with my ideas anymore :D**

 **Anyhoow! To answer your comments...!**

 **laxusdrayer2324: Aww, thank you very much, of course I will continue if you want me to :) And dont worry, Mavis will show up...later on :D**

 **rikox &Guest&igodzilla1991&Angie: thank you very much :) I will certainly update this even if just one other person besides me likes this :)**

 **SecondtoNon: Haha thank you, I actually thought again after updating this chapter about what everythign will change and...heck so many things different with just them staying together...Imagine what would happen if Natsu actually didnt die with his parents.**

 **Person: A lot of troubles...theres Natsu after all...and the rest was in original story part of Fairy Tail...so you can expect few catastrophes :D (FEEEEW :D)**

 **DruidOmen: In the first few paragraphs of the first chapter it was actually on purpose so you could not recognize who was who, then I slowly described their appearances so you would recognize them slowly like...who else on the world has pink hair except Natsu? xD I thought it would kinda get the reader more excited about the first part of the story so they would want to continue until the end of the chapter at least :D Otherwise thank you a lot for what you said -wrote-, and I will try to keep characters not OOC, but you cannot expect me to do it from the start with some cause since they never met Natsu and Natsu stayed with Zeref, there are gonna be some differences :)**

* * *

He ran as fast as he could, but anyway with the extra weight the distance between himself and his home seemed twice as long as normally, even though he wasn't tired or panting he still felt like he ran for miles without reaching his goal, as if he finally after all those years got lost in the labyrinth the forest itself was.

Which he knew was impossible since he knew almost the whole place better than the cottage he and Zeref were living in.

But at the moment, with the bruised girl on his shoulders he couldn't bring himself to be sure of anything, he didn't even know if she was alive.

Heck…he didn't know why he was helping her either. He didn't exactly favor humans -except his brother- after all he was put through, but for some reason, he felt obligated to help this girl.

If only for the reason that she was probably dealt with the same way as was he, if the shackles around her limbs indicated anything.

Finally, after what seemed like eternity he caught a glimpse of his home and began to run faster, if that was even possible. Zeref was nowhere in sight so he deduced that for the first time in his life his brother listened to him and stayed inside with the food.

"Zeref! Zeref! ZEREF!" he shouted in panic, hoping that his brother wasn't sleeping and paid attention to the now completely freaked out Natsu, who just now realized that the girl could be in serious state after she almost drowned.

He forgot, did he check her breathing? Did he check her heartbeat?

Oh god, please don't tell him that he was carrying a dead body with himself the whole time.

Luckily, seconds after his shout he saw his sibling run out of the house in similar state to Natsu's, completely bewildered about what happened that made his brother sound so terrified.

"Natsu?" he asked hesitantly, looking at the pink haired boy and quickly scanning for any injuries or _anything_ that could scare Natsu so.

Not until he checked Natsu for any bruises and their surrounding did he look at what Natsu was carrying, and was surprised to see not only barrel with water on his shoulders. "W-What-" he began, but seeing his brother state he stopped himself and motioned inside the cottage so they could look closely at the girl.

Zeref took their blanket and put it on the ground along with some pillows and told Natsu to put her down. Once he did so, Zeref finally started questioning.

"Who is she?"

"I-I don't know" Natsu replied shakily, he was still in shock from the event, and since his brother did not ask him further he supposed that he looked horrible enough to not bother him with stupid quizzes…at least for now.

Both of them shifted their attention on the intruder lying in their home, and Natsu decided that it is finally time to do something about it. Uncertainly he stood up and grabbed their water basin, filling it with water from the barrel he brought and hastily finding some cloth that he dove inside and came back to kneel at the blonde girl's side, carefully wiping the blood on her wounds away.

Unconsciously she flinched a few times, and by the painful look that appeared on her face he knew that she needed better treatment than that. He glanced at his brother that just helplessly sat by her other side and sighed.

"I'm gonna get some herbs for her bruises since they don't look that well, can you clean her up in the meantime?" Natsu asked while handling Zeref the water basin along with the cloth.

The raven haired boy nodded. "Sure."

With that Natsu left the main room to the kitchen and started rummaging through all the drawers in search for the right herbs.

Their little house was divided into two rooms, the first one being their bedroom, they had one bed there which they shared, the barrel with water and some shelves for necessities and some clothes, though they mostly had just one available change each, excluding pajamas, but both of them slept only with pants on so it wasn't such a difference. The other room -the kitchen- practically was only for Natsu to use, since he was the one who held the entire place together. He was the one who cooked, went hunting and gathered herbs either for first aid kit or for the animal flesh they grilled with his own magic. Zeref's only duty was cleaning and napping, if you can take that as something that helped the household. Anyhow, the kitchen had small table with two chairs and countertop with shelves above it filled with kitchenware.

Everything was made from wood as they built it all together, including all the tools that were made either from wood or the animals…or both. It was nothing much, but it was enough for both of them to survive.

It's not like either of them ever needed something more. Zeref spent most of his time outside, and so did Natsu. They trained together outside, they played outside and with the enchanting surroundings, no one could blame them.

After all, the whole forest belonged to them since no one else dared to enter.

Until now.

Once Natsu found what he needed, he quickly tore off the leaves and came back into the main room and dove them in the barrel. They weren't poisonous and probably wouldn't have made any change in the taste of the water so he considered it safe. The second he was sure that all of the leaves were wet he shooed Zeref away and sat back at the blonde's side, slowly and gently putting them on the girl's wounds.

She let out a few whimpers, but it could have turned into something worse if he didn't cover them all so he, albeit with disgust over making her feel more pain, continued.

She already had the rag covering her torn from when Zeref tried to clean her, not that it did much anyway, so he ordered Zeref to find something from their clothing to fit her.

Zeref was surprised at how much attention Natsu paid to the girl, but he guessed it was just a habit as he himself got injured severely many times, freaking his little brother out and making him immediately become more caring than any real nurse. He smiled fondly at the scene as it brought him some memories and quietly went to search for something that would fit their host.

In the meantime, Natsu changed her position so she was lying on her stomach so he could access the wounds on her back, and he couldn't help himself but let out a gasp on the scars he saw.

He was a demon, so any scars inflicted on him faded away very quickly, resulting in him looking as if nothing happened, but this girl was sure gonna have a reminder of her worst times on her back for a very long time, if not forever. He pitied the girl before him, but there was nothing he could do to change it, only to make it feel less painful while it healed.

And so he started putting the leaves all over her back too, and it seemed that it didn't hurt as much anymore as the girl didn't make a sound this time.

His brother entered the room with some pants and shirt in his hands, and so both of them started dressing her carefully so the herbs wouldn't fall of.

After all, the fact that they were wet was the only reason they stuck on her body.

Once they were finished Natsu threw somewhere the rag, thinking about using it later for a campfire or something, and decided to go with his brother outside, letting the girl have a peaceful sleep.

They sat outside next to each other in silence, trying to calm down their wild hearts after what happened.

Suddenly, Zeref put his head on Natsu's shoulder, leaning on him the rest of his body and asked quietly "Why did you bring her here? It's not like you to help people that wander here, not that I complain, I'm actually proud of you"

Aware or not, the younger sibling started to ruffle the raven hair softly, staring into distance.

"I just couldn't leave her there" he whispered, making his brother chuckle and slowly close his eyes.

* * *

Lucy woke up feeling as if she was surrounded by feather-like touches from all sides. She opened her eyes with more effort than she thought could ever take to just lift her eyelids. At first, everything was blurry, but after some moments she found herself staring at wooden ceiling illuminated by orange light.

She tried to sit up, despite her body extremely opposing the idea. Not to mention she felt something fall of from her face once she was sitting, and for a moment she freaked out about her skin giving finally away. Looking onto her lap she noticed that she was wearing a loose white shirt and black shorts, partially covered by white blanket on which lay few green leaves.

She guessed those were the things that fell of her face and sighed in relief that her face wasn't falling apart as she thought. She carefully looked around and noticed that she was in some kind of small humble wooden house, and desperately tried to recollect her memories about what happened prior to her awakening in hopes that she could find some answers of where she was there.

She remembered running away and then reaching the end of the reef…

…and then…

… _then_ she fell off the waterfall.

But that was impossible, no one was able to survive in the forest, did it mean someone from the guards found her and carried her away? Was she still a prisoner? Lucy started to panic, but then a quick realization hit her. If she indeed was captured again, she would still have her tattered rag instead of clothes that felt so soft on her skin, and she certainly would not be lying with a blanket put over herself and pillows under her head.

Not to mention the shackles around her hands and legs seemed to magically disappear as well.

But that confused her even more, as it made her unaware of where she was.

Slowly, she stood up, feeling many other leaves fall off from all over her body, and noticed that her bruises didn't hurt as much as yesterday.

Was that some kind of a medicine? She carefully took one of the leaves in between her fingers and examined it, thought she knew that even from such short distance she still could not recognize what it was as she wasn't exactly paying much attention to herbs and their recognition. She let the leaf fall back onto the ground and supporting her weight with one hand on the wall she carefully made her way outside the open door that stood right before her.

To say she was astonished about what she saw was a very… _very…_ weak word.

Above her were tree crowns shielding her from the sun, yet still letting some stray rays of sunlight go through, which lighted up the soft grass she was currently standing on. The calming sound of birds and water being followed by gentle breeze combing her hair, and last but not least, the two boys lying on the cold ground contrasting the warm light few feet in front of her.

She couldn't believe someone actually lived in the cursed forest, not to mention how carefree the two seemed about it, just lying outside sleeping.

Who in their right minds would do that in place that was rumored to kill anyone who entered?

Quietly and carefully she stepped closer to the two boys, kneeling before them and studying their appearances with her eyes.

One had a pink hair and very well built body, he wore black cloak with white scarf and white baggy pants. The other had his head on the pink haired boy's chest and raven hair. He looked pretty fragile in her eyes but she was sure he could put up a fight too if he wanted to. He wore black something-like open jacket and white shirt with black shorts that reached few centimeters below his knees.

They looked like two little cute angels to her, with their serene expressions and vulnerable faces as they slept so innocently in this place of doom.

She didn't know why, but she felt the need to touch at least one of them, if only to feel the warmth of another person for one more time after all those years of being locked up in cold almost-like prison. She didn't want to wake either of them up and so she was trying to be careful when she reached her hand towards the pink haired one's hair, slowly getting closer…and closer…

…and _so_ _much_ closer…

…until she almost screamed when something all of a sudden caught her hand firmly and refused to let go.

She was terrified when she saw the hand holding hers, following it with her eyes to its owner only to notice two green orbs glaring at her dangerously, as if she just tried to taint these two with her touch.

However, what surprised her was that after few moments his gaze softened, as if he just realized what-or who he was glaring at and he let her go.

"Sorry, you just surprised me" he whispered, sitting up while trying to not wake up the other, gently moving the raven haired boy's head onto his lap while motioning for her to sit beside him.

She was still in a daze but listened anyway, quietly sitting next to him, hugging her knees as she did so.

Silence enveloped them, and she felt obliged to say something, but what exactly was she supposed to say in such situation?

Well, "thank you" was probably a good start, logically. But for some reason it just felt weird to say that to a person you just woke up.

She glanced at the boy sitting next to her, who started to ruffle the head which lied in his lap. She beamed at the scene, unaware that her "savior" turned his attention back to her.

"So, wanna tell me how did you end up half drowned in a river in here out of all places?" he asked her while grinning, and Lucy couldn't help but to be honest with him.

And so she told him her story, starting from that cursed day she met the damned fire mage in port of Hargeon, and Lucy was amazed on how closely did he listen to her the whole time.

* * *

 **Well, thats that :D Since anyone who saw the first episode of Fairy Tail and read first chapter of this story should know what happened to Lucy, Im sure I can skip the story telling :)  
**

 **So how do you like the character interaction? Good/bad? :D Lemme know! :)**

 **If something is hard to read, I deeply apologize, english is not my native language :)**

 **So, see ya next time!**

 **ALAERIIIS! :***


	3. Chapter 3

**Well, Im back after a horrid trip to river with my class! Completely exhausted, I might add :D But I just couldnt let you wait anymore, and decided to update :D**

 **Im really glad that you like the idea, and probably are curious about how the other Fairy Tail characters will end up. (especially Gray since there arent any Zeref demons except Natsu right xD)**

 **Well, you will see! encounter with Fairy Tail and Gray is coming closer, so wait excited!**

 **Anyyyhooow! Your questions!**

 **People Are Zebras: Haha you aint trash, it takes courage to ship something no one before you did, so thats something you should be proud of! Lucy isnt going to be the only one affected that way, I plan for Erza, Gray and Mavis have a big change as well, just you wait when you meet Mavis! :D :D Anyhow, I dont think that you hsould regret stumbling upon this story just now, since its still in the making, and you will have to wait for chapters :) But if thats okay with you, thank you for reading!**

 **laxusdrayer2324: Natsu is always kind :O Zeref and Lucy didnt have much of interaction since the black mage sleeps half a day away you see...even in the anime T.T, and he himself said to Mavis in the manga that they had no need to sleep since they were cursed QQ (well okay, Zeref in this story aint cursed anymore, but in anime he is! and you see him in every scene napping! NOT FAIR! :D) but since I imagine him pretty clumsy without the curse, as he didnt need to eat with it, therefore had no reason to try cooking, I rather leave all important things to Natsu xD**

 **Guest: Worry not, I do not write Nalu/Gruvia fics, as those are very strange ships to me. I imagine Nalu to be somehow way too cliché, uninteresting. And Gruvia just simply makes no sense, if I had a stalker like Juvia is, I would imagine it would practically be suicide to start dating with someone obsessed over me like that. Then again, anime logic. And shhh, you are stealing my ideas! :D**

 **nickgogo343: Where? :D Lemon as in...the yellow sour thingie or...? :D**

 **Well enjoy :D**

* * *

The sound of muffled voices slowly brought Zeref back from dreamland to reality as he opened his eyes and struggled to register the scene in front of him. Putting aside the light of the setting sun that disrupted his sight, the fact that he had his brother's face above him, smiling and happily conversing with someone other than him greatly confused him and he couldn't help but feel upset.

He sat up from his position of lying on Natsu's lap, catching the attention of both of them. He started stretching out until he realized…

…who the hell was his little brother talking to?!

He turned around swiftly only to notice Natsu and the wounded blonde girl from before eyeing him strangely.

"Looks like our sleeping beauty finally woke up" Natsu smirked, watching Zeref blush from embarrassment as he became aware that he slept through the conversation, not to mention his certain tendencies of shifting awkwardly and talking in his sleep.

The girl hid behind Natsu with her hands on his shoulders, causing Zeref to sweat drop and ponder if he was truly that scary.

"Uh, hi" he started awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head and hoping that it would ease her worries about him, even if just a little.

The girl giggled and with Natsu giving her a slight push she moved to face Zeref, reaching out her hand and introducing herself as Lucy Heartfilia. He took her hand and smiled gently, glad that she wasn't so wary of him anymore.

After that, Natsu shortly summarized her tale to his older brother.

Lucy watched their interaction fondly, even though she felt envious of them and their carefree life. Speaking of that, if they were so carefree about living here, how come that the stories about this place were so scary? It didn't look so bad at all. She put a finger under her chin and started pondering about the reason.

The two obviously noticed her confused expression and switched their attention to her.

"Something the matter?" they asked in unison while looking at her with their faces invading her personal space, making her jump a little as she was lost in her own concentration, and she wondered if they weren't secretly twins.

She crawled awkwardly backwards. "Well, I just wondered how come the only rumors I ever heard about this forest are pretty dark, but it looks really awesome in here! And you even just take a nap in middle of it, completely oblivious to anything else. I'm kinda jealous and regretting I haven't tried to get in here sooner." She explained while looking at the sky dreamily, and the two brothers shared a look at each other for a while before replying.

"You would have died if you came here alone"

She gasped once she noticed the serious tone in both of their voices and stared at them as if they grew three heads and waited for more to be said.

"Natsu is an immortal demon, no wild animal can hurt him" Zeref started, earning almost horror-like face from the blonde, but he either ignored it or didn't notice.

"And we started living here as small children, I have memorized long ago all paths across this labyrinth, what does each plant do and which animal's meat is tasty and which not." Natsu finished casually, as if it was no big deal.

The two were completely bewildered cause of her, with her eyes wide and mouth hanging open, and the fire demon was actually expectant for something to fly into the open door to the girl's throat.

They tilted their heads towards each other cutely and became curious if they did something wrong.

"A-a demon you say?" she stuttered, wondering if she just got into bigger mess than she was in before.

They both nodded casually. Their actions were so synchronized to the point it was becoming obvious they either had long history together or somehow shared the same reactions to certain situations.

Natsu looked up, as if pondering something, and then he tried to explain calmly. "Mmm, I think I was called E.N.D. or something like that…though I can't really remember anymore…it was a long time ago, you see. Zeref just calls me Natsu or an idiot…" he rubbed the back of his head while laughing as he remembered all the stupid things he used his fire on and was scolded by his 'big brother' right after, only for him to make Zeref chase him through the whole forest until he gave up from exhaustion and surrendered to the fire mage.

Zeref sweatdropped while looking at the shine his brother seemed to emit, both of them completely oblivious how did the girl between them paled considerably.

"Z-Zeref?" she asked, horrified if her instincts were telling any truth about what was happening right now. "As in, the most evil black wizard in history, the one who threatened to erase humankind 400 years ago…THAT ZEREF?!" Lucy all but yelled, making the birds near them escape from their nests in trees as the sound scared the shit out of them.

Natsu just glanced at her strangely, as if she was the dumbest person he ever met. "Uh-huh, Zeref" he confirmed while pointing at his brother. "Though I'm pretty sure he is not evil maniac who tried to kill anyone 400 years ago…sure there was that stupid curse and so on but…" he wanted to disagree with more things she proclaimed, but found himself at loss when she started shaking him while shouting into his poor, sensitive ears.

"YOU! DON'T SAY ANYTHING! E.N.D?! YOU ARE A FUCKING E.N.D.?! WHAT THE HELL?! HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM ABOUT THIS?! AREN'T YOU SUPPOSED TO BE THE WICKED AND DESTRUCTIVE DEMON ZEREF CREATED?!"

Natsu looked at her as if she just accused him –which she did- and stood up while screaming at the top of his lungs (poor forest animals). "HEY! JUST BECAUSE I DESTROYED FEW BUILDINGS AND ACCIDENTALY BURNED FEW TREES YOU DON'T HAVE TO CALL ME THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE AND WICKED! IT'S NOT LIKE I DID IT ON PURPOSE YA KNOW?!"

"Huh?" They looked at each other confused. "That's all?" Lucy asked disbelievingly, which irritated Natsu.

"If you take it as 'that's all', I wonder what the hell did you think I did!"

"Umm…well…" she hesitated and they just stared at each other, poor Zeref being ignored the whole time and just watching the comical scene playing out in front of him…

"AND I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW I WAS NOT 'CREATED' BUT 'RESSURECTED'! I WAS A HUMAN ONCE TOO YA KNOW!"

She collapsed on her knees, and that's when the raven haired wizard noticed something. "Something came out!" he pointed at the white miniature of a ghost that looked as if it was trying to escape its owner from the girl's mouth.

"Oh, I knew something was gonna come out or in! Just look how she had her mouth wide open the whole time!"

…

…

…

"Hey, are you alright?" Natsu asked worriedly, looking at the pale and still body in front of him.

"I think we might have just given her a heart attack." Zeref stated calmly.

Natsu seemed to ignore whatever his brother said and put his hands on both of her shoulders, shaking with her violently until the whatever thing came back and with a flinch the girl looked like she returned back to reality.

"Oi, what happened to you?" he questioned, completely confused at her actions since the time he announced his nickname up until now.

Even Zeref's name gave her goosebumps, and he couldn't simply contemplate why, he didn't remember doing anything that would guarantee him such reaction.

"What happened to me?! What happened to _you_?!" She screamed, and upon noticing their strange puzzlement about her behavior, Lucy started telling them the tales that were spoken about the two of them, and with each rumor their faces started to turn more and more stunned.

By the time she finished both appeared to be frozen, shocked about their supposed viciousness, and not long after they collapsed to the ground, lifeless.

"So I'm supposed to be most evil wizard in history…" Zeref expressed dejectedly.

"And I'm supposed to be some wicked creation of yours…" Natsu uttered with the same amount of dejection.

They lied on the ground absolutely defeated from her words.

Lucy sweatdropped as the two boys took her storytelling with such negative attitude, and she wondered if they truly were not aware of those gossips about them which humans took more like facts, since there were no other explanations.

"I guess that if you took that so badly you wouldn't mind telling me what really happened?" she queried, curious about what they would say.

The question seemed to wake up Natsu, or E.N.D., or whatever he wanted her to call him.

"Well, the plot would be that we were inseparable brothers around 400 years ago, but one day dragons appeared in our village and killed me and our parents, while Zeref was on his studies in another place far away, once he found out I was dead he couldn't accept the reality and tried to find out how to bring back the dead, hence the Eclipse Portal and Tower of Heaven plans, although he never used these since the portal could just travel in past and Tower of Heaven required too much for resurrecting one person…" Natsu started making their story clear, but she was too captured by the guilty expression which appeared on his face. "…However, one day he got cursed because he studied dark arts. That curse -the curse of contradiction- would start killing anything near him if he treasured life, being the naïve idiot my brother was at that time he valued even lives of such creatures as ants, therefore the curse hit pretty hard the first time. In the end, he found how to get me back, but could not avoid killing animals, trees, or even humans that got too close to him in the process, because he simply loved too much." Even as Natsu said that, from his look Lucy could see that he blamed himself more than the curse. "It took us long time before we could lift it, and coincides happen, but we never did anything of it on purpose." He tried to justify, leaving out few details, for example that it did affect his mentality as well and there were times he was acting suicidal, or even malicious.

She looked down as she heard out their tragic story, and suddenly understood why they wanted to live in seclusion. "I…." she wanted to say something, but had no idea what to do in such situation. After all, everything she believed about these two beings proved now to be wrong, causing confusion inside her brain and she felt wrong as she reminisced about the cruel tales she told them. "Um…"

They just both gave her a fond smile. "It's okay, we didn't exactly explain ourselves at that time, so it's not surprising people came up with their own story."

Lucy gave them a hopeful look, glad that she was forgiven, or at least felt that way since no one really spoke about it like that, but stiffened as she heard explosion from the side of the forest and looked swiftly that way, seeing the birds fly towards them in the sky from that area.

"What's happening?" she asked.

The brothers pondered for a while about it, but after a while Natsu responded. "It looks like someone entered the forest, and not with innocent objectives."

"How coincidental that almost a day after you showed up there are intruders." Zeref highlighted.

They both watched her with odd looks, but after a while sighed. "They're after you aren't they?"

Lucy nodded, fearful if these two would just hand her over, not caring about what would happen to her if she gets caught.

"How is that possible though? It should take days to get down here from the town." Natsu stared at the spot, bemused.

"They are probably using horses, and found some kind of shortcut." The raven haired mage looked at the shivering blonde and rubbed his temples in irritation. "Anyhow, we have to get out of here as soon as possible, Natsu?" he turned to the younger boy. "Can you pack up for a trip? We're leaving."

Lucy looked at Natsu, who seemed shocked that after all their time here they were leaving, but once he saw the expectation in the girl's eyes he couldn't say no.

"Fine." He grumbled and went into their little cottage, preparing for them to depart.

The celestial wizard beamed at the rumored black mage, grateful they will help her and tackled him without consideration for who he was anymore, repeating words of thanks again and again.

* * *

 **So so, what do you think?  
**

 **By the way, I somehow summarized their story because they will later answer some more detailed questions as they meet more characters and I just didnt want to repeat the same thing over and over again, so I deliberately left out some things there, if it wouldnt make sense to you.**

 **I apologize for any mistakes, and hope you enjoyed reading this, see ya in next chapter!**

 **Alaeriiiis! :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, Im sorry updating takes so long, but I seriously sit by my notebook with pen everyday...I guess Im making a race with turtles about the slowest updates T.T**

 **Not to mention Fairy Heart...so much to write...yet every time I sit and decide to write...I come out blank...like - I write one sentence...and then erase it...then again I write something...and erase it...and this goes for hours! :D:D**

 **If this is some kind of authors burnt out syndrome, I hope it goes away soon, I need to update xDDD Im gonna force myself sit whole tomorrow on my chair and write so I can update Fairy Heart within 1-2 days!**

 **Anyhow! to your questions!**

 **AngelLightWolf: Oh ho ho hoooo...Now that wouldnt be a surprise if I told ya would it xD Btw actually - Zeref had nothing to do with Tower Of Heaven - except making the blueprint for it I guess- but he didnt build it, dark guilds did. He didnt manipulate Jellal as everyone proclaim - it was Ultear. So really, there is nothing much to change there - except I thought something around the lines:**

 **Zeref: Natsu...? I thought you burned those plans...**

 **Natsu: Uh...well...you see...I kinda...lost them on the way?**

 **Zeref: ...**

 **YOU WHAT?!**

 **Thats that :D**

 **laxusdrayer2324: He is not, worry not :) (And thats a rhyme right there! xD)**

 **KsLuna: Well...Gray will be awesome, thats all I can say for now :D I will explain the curse thingie latter, but probably as flashback, and sometime later so it would make sense, I already got outline of the _how_ so I just need the right place to put it in now. Of course, that wouldnt be the very start of the story, would it? :D**

 **Well I guess thats all, so here you go!**

 **Btw, this was supposed to be funny chapter :D**

* * *

„Natsuuu…" the so called black mage whined, much to the other one's dismay "…why are we going by foot?"

Said person sighed for like tenth time upon hearing the question that was being repeated way too many times in the past few minutes.

He swore, the days just lazing around spoiled Zeref too much, he wasn't even carrying anything unlike Natsu and he was already complaining!

"Because…" he shifted the enormous traveling bag on his shoulders and continued. "…if I used magic for traveling they would be able to track it! I told you this five times already Mr. Genius!"

Zeref pouted at that, yet walked beside Natsu nevertheless.

Lucy thought it was kinda cute. I mean, she was just watching the two supposedly most dangerous beings alive acting like little children…

…or at least one of them so far, Natsu had his moments too, but he seemed to be stuck in the "big brother" role mostly.

She smiled fondly, recalling how those two didn't hesitate in helping her, even to the point of hiding their house so it would be obvious there was no one in the forest to help Lucy survive, so her captors would conclude that she was dead, and therefore didn't pursuit her any further.

Although the fire demon was too reluctant to leave almost anything behind, hence the huge sack on his back.

Lucy also felt a little special, considering she was probably the only one who could interact so freely with these two.

"Look how she's grinning happily!"

"Oh, she's probably becoming one of your fans already, not that you don't have enough dark guilds adoring ya"

"T-That's not it!" Lucy tried to deny, but it looked like she was ignored as the two continued in their argument.

"You talk like if you didn't have those Master E.N.D." Zeref teased his brother, reminding him of the way how Lucy described he is called in history.

"Aww, shut up"

"Both of you are wrong!" She shouted suddenly, getting both of their attentions as they stopped and turned to look at her curiously. She took a few deep breaths to calm down before she started talking again. "I was just admiring how Natsu is amazing elder sibling! I sure wish I had one of those too…" She beamed, but stopped abruptly when she noticed how the pink haired mage suddenly froze and Zeref's hair suddenly covered his eyes with dark aura emanating from him.

The atmosphere grew more intense as the raven haired boy clenched his fists before suddenly jumping in front of her and yelling at the poor girl. "I will have you know that _I_ am the elder one! Don't judge people by their heights!"

That caused Lucy to sweatdrop. "I didn't say anything about heights…" she heard Natsu chuckle somewhere in the background, but wanted to clear the misunderstanding. "And you don't act like the elder brother at all! You are being spoiled by Natsu, taken care of by Natsu and clumsy as hell! We were walking for just few minutes and you tripped over nothing who knows how many times!"

"Those stones were standing in my way on purpose I swear! And it's not my fault you two didn't see them!"

"You are still not denying the rest!"

"Aggrrh, whatever, let's just keep going you two!" Natsu suddenly shouted, interrupting their argument, his head already hurt and they weren't even two kilometers away from the forest. He just wanted to walk straight and leave them behind, but that would cause him earful once Zeref found him.

Seriously, from what Lucy told them, one would think she would be more careful around his brother, but…oh well, he didn't question it, considering it was a good thing.

Probably.

Although he was sure that if they kept arguing like that the whole way he would lose his mind very soon, and trust me, _no one_ wanted to see an angry demon, especially when he's angry at you.

For a while the fire wizard considered if it just wouldn't be easier to summon his phoenix and travel by air. Sure they would be on plain sight, leaving quite obvious magic trail behind them, making the hiding of their house completely useless since heck, no one was that dumb. If you were searching for a person and in distance of the supposed place where she landed saw a big bird flying in the sky trying to get away, you would figure it out.

Right?

He sighed, they weren't even that far and he already felt exhausted, his brother being the main cause.

And then he tripped.

And fell with face flat onto the ground.

" _THIS. IS. THE. LAST. STRAW."_ He thought as he turned to glare at the object which he tripped on, ignoring the laughs in the background.

Only one problem, there was nothing except sand.

Suddenly the ground shook under them and began to crack slowly, revealing something akin to rock golem emerging from below, not looking exactly pleased.

Just a way to brighten his day. Poor Natsu.

"SEE?! I TOLD YOU THERE WERE ROCKS!" Zeref proclaimed, seemingly uncaring about the situation, while Lucy appeared to be freaked out.

"SHUT UP AND RUN!" both the blonde and demon yelled back at him, already dragging him with them while running away from the monster.

* * *

After their run in with golem, luck just didn't seem to be exactly on our dear group's side.

Leaving out the annoying bugs, poisoned snakes, and generally things that tried to eat them…Natsu also had to deal with the two getting caught up in every damn illusion of oases the desert had to offer, announcing they were water deprived, even though the fire mage told them many times he got plenty of it.

He sighed, he knew it meant trouble when his brother started to feel all adventurous, but now he was wondering if they will even survive this already disastrous trip.

Natsu never ever thought that Zeref would leave the comfort and seclusion of their beloved cottage in middle of the woods willingly, let alone erase its existence with his magic.

Apparently, he was wrong. It would appear one blond girl was all it took.

Just great. Looks like blonde means trouble, he still remembered the little girl named Maris- or something like that- whom brought them another kind of trouble. He wondered where she ended up, he heard she made a guild from someone, he wondered what kind of people were there. Natsu realized that this was 100 years ago, but it won't hurt to check up if it still stands. It would please Zeref for sure too, he was always curious about her.

That aside, it was already getting dark, and a place they could have the option to camp at was nowhere in sight.

It would be pointless to use magic for transport now; they were all tired after all.

"Hey guys, let's stop here for today" he suggested, surprised when both Lucy and Zeref dropped on the ground the second he said it.

Guess they weren't exactly traveling material…

Natsu let them rest and put his baggage down, unraveling it on the ground and getting out some of his things, starting to prepare for staying the night.

He didn't consider them to be so slow, so he brought nothing that could build a roof above their heads, so he had to hope it won't rain.

Although that was a very low chance in this sand wasteland, hence it's looks.

Luckily, he had blankets and pillows. However just for two people, as it has always been just him and Zeref, but they could either share as they did up until now, or Natsu will simply lay on the ground, he had no need for those. Being a fire mage raised up his body heat, so he had no problem staying in the cold nights naked and still feel warm.

He unfolded the cushions and brought out the water container and was about to take out some food as well before he heard soft snores from behind him. Turning around to see which one of them fell asleep, he smiled fondly when he saw them both lying devastated on the sandy ground, not moving a muscle, with serene expressions on their faces, despite the hard day.

He spread out the empty leather sack, so they wouldn't have to lie in the sand, put pillows on it and tucked them both under their blankets. Of course, carefully so they wouldn't wake up. For some reason, the woman was at least twice as heavy as his brother…probably that extra chest weight.

The fire mage was trying to assure himself that he won't have the need to carry here on any more occasions, if only for saving up more of his energy to deal with other stunts these two always seem to attract.

For some reason, just looking at them being all content and asleep made him exhausted and he wanted to know how could they be so calm about this. How could his brother be so calm? They just left their home, obliterated it, let other people invade so there is no certainty that they can go back, and he didn't look troubled at all.

With more effort than he previously thought it would take, Natsu himself then sat next to them, watching out for any danger that could lurk in the silent night.

There were no birds to sing him to sleep, no calming sound of water flowing near, and no way to cover up or hide. It made him feel insecure, cautious about every rustle or simply the howls of the wind.

He felt uneasy about this whole event, to be honest. He wished to help the poor girl and find the bastard who had done that to her, but something told him that if he will, everything will change.

He couldn't fathom at the time how right he was, although change doesn't always mean a bad thing.

Natsu looked up at the bright stars in the sky, realizing for the first time just how beautiful they were, considering the huge tree crowns they had back home, he couldn't see much of them before, but now it was all clear.

And he gotta say, this is amazing.

He felt anxious about what tomorrow has to give, but…

…he was looking forward to it as well.

* * *

The next morning was pretty ordinary, it was like all the traps were used up yesterday, and Natsu finally created a phoenix out of his fire, which they all sat on and were carried in the wildly blowing wind for the rest of their travels.

He was astounded when he found out how good his once-emo brother, who shouted at everyone near to stay away from him, was getting along with Lucy. Not that he wasn't proud, it was just…weird you could say.

He wasn't used to Zeref being all talkative, but then again, it couldn't be bad when it made him smile, right?

Right.

He didn't realize how deep in his thoughts he was lost until he noticed their goal just few kilometers away from their bird point of view. He smirked, for sure Lucy will be surprised.

As their next stop…the city below them…

…was nothing else than Port of Hargeon.

Oh yes, he will make sure the bastard pays.

* * *

 **So, before any of you get confused about Natsus magic, I made it the same as in Fairy Heart.**

 **If you dont read Fairy Heart then - Its basically his dragon slayer magic combined with what we have seen about Grays demon slaying magic (since igneel and Natsu seemed to have the same moves despite being dragon and dragon slayer, so I counted on it being the same with demon and devil slayer)**

 **And the thing with the phoenix - it came in handy - basically, Natsu can do some sort of Zerefs living magic, with his fire. Although those "creatures" of fire dont have mind of their own, they just listen to their Master - aka Natsu. And they are not exactly alive either - its just fire magic power in certain form that can move around if you get me :D**

 **well if ya got any questions about that, I will answer ya as soon as I can!**

 **Now I gotta update Fairy Heart :D so See ya in the next chapter! :)**

 **Alaerii :3**


	5. Chapter 5

**Well what do you know, another chapter is here of this story! :D**

 **laxusdrayer2324: I know! He is soo damn kawai right! Makes me wanna hug him! Last time they saw human? Hmm...well some years for sure :D**

 **Dragonblaze66: Thank you! At first when I realized they were related I sooo much begged Mashima for this to happen :D Guess after the war its not possible anymore tho...T.T**

 **AngelLightwolf: He is my favourite character as well...cute...I just love him! If anyone asked me I would side with him no questions asked! :D You will see about Grays magic dont worry :) As for the rivalry...Im not entirely sure...the teasing is still probably gonna be there but the fights Im not sure since I made Natsu quite OP.**

 **Well, those were all comments for last chapter, so I hope I answered all correctly :) Again thank you for reading this story!**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Lucy flinched at the familiar sight of the town where her suffering as a slave started. She couldn't see a reason why Natsu would lead them here, she doubted he would have any business here after being stuck in a forest who knows how far away, and it made her wonder about the reason of their visit.

She felt anxious as they were slowly landing not so far from the gates. Goosebumps appeared on her pale skin and she unknowingly leaned closer to Zeref, as if for protection.

"Well, this is our stop, let's move" Natsu announced while jumping off of the fire creature, waiting patiently for Lucy and Zeref to do the same. He then petted the fire bird and slowly let the magic dissipate.

Lucy was walking behind the two of them as they entered the port town, still feeling worried about this little side trip. The high buildings seemed to laugh at her, while as she fell back behind more than she anticipated, the small streets which led through started to look as if they were leading her to a maze. Lucy couldn't understand how the two boys could walk so confidently but she ran to catch up to them and held onto Zeref's hand, not wanting to get lost or being taken away again.

He either didn't care or didn't notice, as he didn't even flinch or spared her a single glance. Maybe she was being obvious about this and neither of them desired to voice it out. It would make sense. As they turned around another corner, a blinding light struck her eyes as they arrived in the area where the high buildings didn't cover the sun. It seemed to be a marketplace, with people smiling at their customers and vice versa. Everything appeared to be surrounded by light and warmth, air filled with confetti – probably some celebration was going on, and Lucy wondered what she was so afraid of.

It's not like the guy would stay in the same place for long. And with that thought in her mind she allowed herself to smile.

Natsu went a little up ahead and shifted his attention towards them while handling Zeref something.

"Okay, I got some business here to attend to, now I want you two to stay together and have fun here while I'm gone. Zeref got the money, Lucy can show ya around, now please try to survive without me for an hour or so, got it?"

They both stared at him bewildered, but he just turned around, already walking away while waving.

Zeref looked on the money in his hand strangely, as if it was something weird – which it was to him, he just napped, sometimes cleaned and had everything he needed laid out before him. This concept of _money_ just didn't go through his head well.

Lucy watched him with amusement, aware of what was probably going through his head and she snatched the money away, dragging the poor guy behind her.

"Let's go shopping then!" She grinned, she could buy so many new clothes and it wasn't even from her pocket! And considering Zeref didn't know what to do with money, it may as well be everything just for her and he wouldn't mind!

Finally, time to take care of her needs! And she even got carrybag guy with her!

She's gotta thank Natsu once he comes back.

But for now…

…well let's say Zeref's probably gonna be traumatized for life.

The first stop was the shop with clothes. She appreciated the outfit that the two boys gave her, but it was anything but girly or cute. She motioned for Zeref to sit across of the dressing rooms while she was wandering through the halls with displayed all kinds of skirts and t shirts. Only after taking at least half of what the shop had to offer with her she closed herself in the small dressing room (Zeref would never understand how she fit in with all the clothes) and started presenting herself with all kind of weird combinations that the poor guy was supposed to give opinion on.

He didn't know how _long_ they were in there, but if anyone asked him, he would say that he just spent weeks in pure hell.

And so the ex-dark mage found out that women were very scary creatures after he mentioned his discomfort to the blonde, and despite his loud screams of refusal, he was dragged along into another building.

Lucy – now in blue skirt and white blouse with occasional blue stripes – now got him into jewelry shop. Zeref resignedly leaned on the door while carrying the heavy bags filled with all kinds of fabric. He just watched her being all hyperactive and running around the shop taking small ornaments and tying them into her hair, creating two cute pigtails.

He sighed, hoping this was going to be over very soon. This is not how he envisioned their travels…walking god knows how long in wasteland…having to sit and see over hundred combination of different outfits – some which he would rather forget – and chasing after an overly excited girl with her bags.

Was there nothing to do?

He was almost jumping from happiness when he saw her paying at the cash and turning towards him.

"From all the running I got quite hungry, would you mind if we go get something to eat?" she asked politely, as if she didn't just put him through utter torture.

Zeref wasn't exactly hungry, but the thought of some nice food surely lifted his spirits up.

That…and the fact that he will be able to sit.

So it wasn't exactly surprising when he agreed without any questions.

As the afternoon sun shone on the streets and disturbed more people from their sleep, the streets were getting busies and busier and so Zeref was glad when Lucy settled for a nearby restaurant. When they opened the door the smell hit them both, making their stomach release an embarrassing sound.

Luckily, either no one seemed to notice or no one cared, and they sat at the closest table next to window.

He could probably never describe the relief as he put the bags down and finally let his feet rest once he sat down on the plushy something like bench. The relax in his body was evident and he put his hands on the light wooden table to create a pillow and let his head fall down.

He was oblivious to the amused stare he was given by the blonde woman, although he probably knew his actions got some reaction.

Lucy just continued to watch the supposedly evilest mage in the world be completely devastated by a mere shopping, while smiling all the way. Then again, she admits that she _could_ have gotten a _little_ carried away, aware that after such long time she was able to do normal things again.

But that was a detail.

She let him rest even when their waiter arrived, asking for something to drink. While it's true she had no idea what the other would like for drink, she doubted he had found anything else except water in the forest that the two lived, and thought that maybe some change would cheer him up. Still, Lucy didn't want to scare him off if she chose something with very strong flavor so she just ordered orange juice for both.

The second time the waiter came, she had no choice but to wake the somehow asleep Zeref (seriously, how does he sleep so much). At first she felt bad about it, but the second she could hear the irritated protests of the older boy she couldn't help but laugh at him, even as she received a harsh glare as a response.

Well, putting all that aside, they ordered their foods successfully, Zeref got at least _some_ rest, Lucy got a one-sided conversation about her plans the first time she arrived in the port of Hargeon, practically talking all the time without stopping about one damn guild, and as their meals arrived, both enjoyed the flavors which invaded their mouths, completely forgetting the annoying events from before.

* * *

Natsu was looking on the sea laid out in front of him, while standing on one of the closest and highest buildings to it.

According to her tale, Lucy was attending a boat party, where she was captured and her keys taken away, thrown into the sea. Considering how fast she described everything to happen, the ship couldn't have been far from the shore, maximally around 300 meters. The problem was that after such long time the keys will be buried under the underwater sand, and he didn't even know the direction the ship was headed to, Lucy wasn't the only captured woman there, and he had no assurance that they were all transported to the same place.

Most probably not, because that would make them way too easy to track.

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. This was not going to be easy, nevertheless he swore to himself that he will do this the second he changed their travel direction to this town.

It would create an opportunity for the girl to get back to her life without having to remind herself this horrible event.

And so, with that thought in mind and steel will, he jumped off of the building and ran towards the sea, preparing himself for a long swimming session.

* * *

Meanwhile Zeref and Lucy finished their eating and went for a walk while trying to find the dragon slayer, the dawn was closing in on them slowly and if they would want to start either traveling or try to find somewhere to spend the night today they will need to do so soon.

Albeit the pink haired man was nowhere to be seen, and as they asked the passerby, no one seemed to know a damn thing.

Lucy noticed a group of girls gathering in one place and thought that maybe Natsu could be there because pink hair seriously stand out too much. So she headed there along with Zeref, and the second she saw who the center of the attention was…

…she completely froze.

It was the same guy who captured her and traded her as a slave.

"No…way…" she whispered to herself, her knees buckling on her as she fell on the floor, finally getting all of Zeref's attention, whom after few glances back and forth between the guy and Lucy realized the situation.

He was genius after all.

He immediately took on the defensive stance, although the guy didn't notice either of them yet. He was surrounded by girls that were all fawning over him.

Why would they be so crazy about this guy?

He decided to come closer for inspection.

The guy had purple hair, and was talking shit all the time while for some reason bringing up his head to his face way too often. Zeref watched it and noticed two rings attached, one with image of heart and the other with some kind of cloud.

It looked suspicious to him, because who the hell would wear such kind of an accessory? So he walked closer, not minding the weird stares, and he flicked it with his finger, successfully breaking it with his magic.

The second he did that, all hell broke loose as the guy started screaming on him, and the girls were confusedly looking around, wondering what the hell they were doing here.

The raven haired boy glared, realizing what just happened and why. And oh, you could not describe the anger he felt for the mage before him.

He was tricking them all, with dirty magic that was not his own. He didn't know why such magic even existed, but this was not the time to think about that.

His eyes turned red, with thin black circle around his pupil, and he summon a black ball into his right hand, not wasting any second before throwing it right in the stomach of his opponent, whom flew through few buildings back, probably breaking few bones from the harsh impact.

But that was not enough.

He started stomping in the slave trader's direction, dangerous aura emitting from his and scaring all the girls away. He didn't get too far, as something caught his feet and he turned his head to glare at the thing.

Only to be welcomed by teary eyed Lucy, basically lying on the ground and holding onto his trousers. His gaze softened, his eyes getting back the black coal color as he kneeled down and hugged her, whispering apologies she had to see him like that while trying to comfort her.

Faintly he noticed in the background the shouts of the Rune Knights and the guy probably getting arrested, but the only thing on his mind was to get the blonde girl out of this place, and soon.

He picked her up bridal style and started to look for Natsu on his own.

It was already dark when he found him, covered in sand, completely soaked and with water dripping out of his clothes. Zeref raised one eyebrow in pure bewilderment, but decided to stay silent as his little brother just seemed to shake it off and shoot him his trademark grin as he took something out of his pocket.

He felt the girl in his hold tense, as he stared at the keychain filled with golden as well as silver keys.

"Is that…?" he wanted to ask, but Natsu nodded before he got the chance to finish his sentence, and Lucy jumped out of his hands, quickly taking the keys from his brother and bringing them to her chest tightly.

For some seconds…then she proceeded to almost kill Natsu by hugging him even tighter and shouting thanks in his already sensitive ears.

Zeref smiled fondly, watching as his brother seemed to find a way for this girl to get back on her feet, erasing the image of her the first time they met.

There was still hope for her to achieve her dreams.

* * *

 **So, before anyone gets confused!**

 **Zerefs eyes continue to change color when hes really angry because he looks kinda badass in my view that way, so I let him kept it even when hes not cursed. I hope all are okay with that :)**

 **Gotta write Fairy Heart now, see ya in the next chapter!**

 **Alaeriiis! :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey there! Long time no see :)**

 **As I already said in Fairy Heart, which some may or may not read, I had 2 weeks free house, and intended to enjoy it to the fullest, + last week I was stuck on countryhouse where there was no wifi, so I couldnt update sooner, and I apologize sincerely.**

 **Well Im sure you will forgive me! So onto your comments! :D**

 **MadamScorpio: Some may think that, however in the manga he got actually golden eyes and in the anime if you watch the first few episodes when there was a zoom in on his eyes when he was casting some spell of his, you can see they are somehow olive-green, or maybe some darker shade of green, but still green :) Although yea, in most of the times he got them black, so I do not disagree with you completely either.**

 **akinichi42: Aww thank you very much! Zeref doesnt have his curse here, so no need to control it, if the red eyes confused you, I already mentioned I let him keep the eye color change cause I just like how badass he looks with it :D A picture?! OF COURSE I WANNA! Hmm...hmmm...I KNOW! Make it Natsu lying on Zerefs lap half asleep while Zeref reads him something (a story)! I dont care if adult or kid version! both are cuties! :D And...as much as this may dissapoint you I do intend to involve them romantically in this story, although its heavily concentrated on their shared bond and bonds they will make with other people instead of the romance, its NOT gonna involve anything sexual either, cause I a) suck at these b) am too embarassed to write these! :D**

 **draco7347: Cant? Well...get a stressball :D I am a slow updater :D**

 **Nyan cat: Thats because they are both such cuties!**

 **laxusdrayer2324: Lets let her be a little selfish, shes been through hell ;) He probably gave Zeref a lot, considering how much she bought :O I imagine him getting it by defeating some bandit on accident, not realizing moneys actuall worth and just ditching it all on his "genius" brother :D**

 **And according to my mail that was all, so I hope I didnt miss anyone, if I did dont worry and pm me! Although you will get first spam of like hundred apologizes from me :D**

 **Well, Enjoy! :D**

* * *

Natsu was glad that the girl was happy, he really was…

…but almost choking him, making his poor ears suffer as she shouted thanks, and to top it all off, making him and his brother her escorts into her dreamy guild that she intended to go into the first time she arrived at Hargeon….

…that was not what he imagined when he decided to help out.

Looks like the trip of our two beloved brothers was still not over.

And so they found themselves traveling across the country again, although this time the blonde just couldn't seem to stop talking about her keys. Even if the demon lead them through the worst wastelands so she could shut up, Lucy just used one of those damn familiars –or whatever- of hers, and kept talking. Natsu swore he remembered each damn one's name, background and love life.

And now, for him to actually remember something like that was an extreme.

Currently they were wandering through quite thick forest that should bring them right in front of the town, where the infamous guild, Fairy Tail, resided.

Both of them were laughing when they heard the name and the destruction its members left behind, after all, what was a guild that brought more misfortune than the problems they were supposed to solve good for? He wanted to ask why the hell it didn't get disbanded yet, well, that was until they got Lucy kicked in their faces. And man, a kick from jump when the person got high heels _really_ hurt.

No further comment on that topic was heard.

Seriously though, he was a demon c'mon! Where was the fear and respect she had when they told her their names? She acted like if they were completely harmless people at her mercy.

Talk about ego boost after she got her magic back.

He sighed, he was tired, so tired. He never thought he would feel so exhausted after he became demon and survived through Zeref's tantrums when he still had the curse. Apparently, he was wrong, it took just one blonde.

What did he do to deserve this?

When he glanced at his brother he saw him equally devastated. Natsu already carried heavy bag with their supplies and provisional tent, he had his hands full, meaning the dark mage was still stuck carrying all the things Lucy bought and refused to have stuffed into the fire mage's baggage. Poor guy, he was used to napping half of a day, this must have been really tough sport for him right now.

And while both of them suffered, the girl was being carried comfortably by one of her spirits – or rather, inside of one of her spirits- humming some unknown song.

He sighed again and swore silently to himself to avoid any contact with women after this. They were scary. And effortlessly made men into their unpaid slaves.

He was already walking on autopilot, not really paying attention to anything but the pain in his back, so he didn't notice when the girl before him abruptly stopped until he lightly crashed right into her, and his brother into him.

Bemusedly, he looked up at her, only to see stars in her eyes and hands on her chest, practically jumping on one spot while trying hard to hold back her excitement.

This wasn't going to end well, he knew, but curiosity killed the cat, they say.

So he looked in the direction of her gaze and he would facepalm if he didn't have his hands full, for the thing Lucy was watching while drooling was a _boy_.

Yes, he guessed you could call him handsome in girl's point of view, but he still didn't get what was it on him that required such reaction Lucy had right now.

Until she shifted their attention to them and started waving her hands all around. "Do you see that?!" they both just nodded in complete disinterest. "That's Fairy Tail's hottest mage! Gray Fullbuster!" she beamed, and the poor guy who heard his name being screamed finally noticed them with a questioning look.

Oh no.

Natsu considered running for it, or maybe pretend he didn't know the girl, but all those had a little problem – his defeated-by-luggage brother, whom he would need to leave behind. He was running out of time to look for ideas in his head as the guy started making his way towards them, probably trying to figure out what was going on, and Natsu was so not in mood to be solving someone's crush.

"Hey there!" the guy waved his hands at them with a welcoming smile, and Natsu's hopes of escape fell, while Lucy just seemed to shine even brighter than she did just a second ago.

Unfortunately, as the Dragneel brothers both attempted to quietly sneak away, the blonde was already happily introducing herself to the Fairy Tail mage, engaging in a lively conversation with him about the usual stuff of her dreams that the two siblings heard more than once already. Poor Gray, they could already see how he was trying to calm her down.

Well, no one was paying attention to them now…so, with just a little bit of luck…

…Zeref slowly put the shopping bags down, already feeling bad for the next victim of the girl the mage was going to be, and started taking slow steps back towards the deep forest behind them along with Natsu.

That would surely work, if not for the fact that Lucy intended to introduce her two "saviors" as well.

"…and those are my two best friends…" she suddenly brought up the guy to them while having iron hold on him for some reason. "…please meet Zeref and E.N.D.!" she finished her sentence that both of them missed the first half of with a grin that surely contradicted what she just said.

They just waved dumbfounded as if confirming their existence.

But the guy just outstretched his hand to them. "Oh I see, nice to mee-" he froze.

…

…

He turned around, grabbed her and ran away, leaving the two poor brothers alone sweatdropping, although the echo of WHAAAAT could still be heard from far in the distance.

They just guessed he was slow at processing things, or maybe a complete idiot. Seriously though, that was kinda exaggerated, the rumors sure were awful, but they didn't look like such bad guys did they?

Apparently, they were scary enough to make one of the most destructive mages on earth run with his tail in between his legs.

They sighed, making themselves comfortable on the ground with Natsu taking out some snack while waiting for Lucy to come back for her things.

* * *

They both panted hard as they leaned with their hands on their knees, Lucy even falling to the ground, trying to rest.

"Okay, so…" Gray started "…was that just a joke or are you actually crazy?"

She was trying to calm her breathing, but answered nevertheless with some trouble. "They are actually really cool, pretty harmless if you ask me"

"Harmless?" he asked bewildered "Do you even know who they are?!"

"Yeah!" she retorted "A very caring demon and clumsy adorable tiny mage!"

"Huh?"

Lucy finally got up and dusted her clothes, deciding to explain the situation to Gray. "They are innocent both. They saved me when I was running away from slavery, gave me new clothes, treated my wounds, found my keys and even accepted helping me get to Magnolia. They lived their whole life in a forest that's miles away from any civilization, those stories about them are just rumors!"

"How can you believe that?! They are probably just deceiving you!" argumented Gray, hoping to wake up this girl from the illusion of the Zeref and the E.N.D. being actually good natured 'people'.

"Then just try to spend some time with them! They agreed on escorting me to Fairy Tail, let's have you lead us and you will see in the meantime they are good guys!"

"And if they're not?"

"Then the most destructive guild in Fiore should be enough to capture them, no?"

…

"Deal."

* * *

"So yeah…" he tried to explain himself after few hours when they finally got back to the two brothers. Gray didn't realize he ran so far away and got lost on the way, so it was already sunset when they finally reunited. "…I'm sorry for that, I might have overreacted a bit there…hehe" he sheepishly ran a hand through his hair.

"No kidding, are you actually some crazy ass girl inside?" Natsu scanned him briefly, actually meaning seriously his sentence and already considering the guy a nuisance.

"Did you say something, asshole?!" the Fairy Tail wizard advanced towards the demon, while Natsu just responded with head-butting the guy and glaring with equal hate and disgust.

"Oh, I said that you act like little scared girl, is your hearing bad as well, princess?" the pink haired boy smirked into the other's face, while the tension between them grew.

"That's enough, both of you" Zeref proclaimed, smacking them both on their heads, interrupting their little staring competition.

Cause really, he just wanted to move forward, the shopping bags were killing him and he couldn't wait to ditch them on someone else.

"Natsu, take the damn sack, Gray-whoever take the damn bags! And let's finally start doing something!" the dark mage demanded.

"But-" wanted to protest, he didn't intend to involve with them at all, he wasn't a bag carrier either.

"Do you dare to disobey me?!" but when he saw that murderous look, he decided the stupid shopping bags were easier to handle than a moody black mage and held onto them for the rest of their way.

"Oy…" he heard the annoying fire mage call out to him.

"What" he growled out, not wanting to deal with him out of all people.

"…maybe I shouldn't ask for my own sake, but why are you naked?" Natsu asked bemusedly, wondering if it was some new trend he missed in the human world.

Although he guessed not when Gray grew red in the face and hastily -with as much shame as a practically naked guy in front of strangers can muster- began to gather his clothes that lied all around.

Now, poor Zeref decided to not look back and continued going forward while he was red like a tomato all the way to his ears when he heard his younger brother ask the question, wondering if this will have some impact on his cute little innocent sibling. Probably yes, and he should probably make sure they don't stay in this boy's presence longer than necessary or Natsu might get corrupted.

Lucy was just watching out for her own clothes while trying to ignore the two guys behind her.

"Some hobby of yours?" taunted the demon.

"Shut up…"

And so their little adventurous trip got one more -embarrassing- member.

* * *

 **So so? :D  
**

 **Im sorry for any gramatical mistakes I might have made, Im still a starter :)**

 **And yes, I do realize this chapter is short, but I wanted the whole meeting and reaching Fairy Tail in one chapter, and yes Gray is on the scene little faster than I previously intended him to be, but I realized theres no need to actually prolong it. His magic and some aprt of the changed past will come out next chapter, so be excited :)**

 **Guess thats all, hope you enjoyed :) TIME TO WRITE FAIRY HEART CAUSE IM LATE AGAIN :D**

 **Alaeriiis!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello guys! I am so sorry I didnt update any sooner, but I had my reasons. To be honest, since the chapter when Zeref died (I hope im not spoiling for anybody) I lost my inspiration to write. I tried, I was sitting hours in front of blank word page, trying to write something, but I couldnt. I decided to take a break, made my graduation, prepared everything I needed for university, and after a while started writing.**

 **Perhaps it may be worse than before, since as you know Im after a long break, I still hope you will enjoy it.**

 **As for Fairy Heart, I think I will either completely erase or rewrite the story, I am not sure of which yet. Anyhow I will not continue it the way it is. Canon Zervis truly honestly and really dissapointed me. (I knew something was wrong when they kissed and Mavis was the only one who died), but I thought it might be because she didnt love him enough, or that her curse wasnt nearly as strong, but to think she fell in love with him AFTER she saw him going completely insane and killing people dissappointed me. I would rather write Nalu than Zervis, which is main reason I am discontiuning Fairy Heart, reason why I am rewriting is because it didnt turn out as well as I expected, not to mention I dont think I will be able to write anything so similar to actual manga for a while.**

 **Yes you might think im overreacting, but zeref was someone I rooted for since they episode he appeared. Seeing him die without accomplishing anything, or without even doing anything brotherly like with Natsu, like a talk"I forgive you" or something, just Ntasu shouting "Brother" for like 3 sentences, was not like how I imagined his death. Im not even mentioning how Makarov, Ichiya and the Heartfilia woman from 400years ago (forgot the name) survived.**

 **ANYHOW! Thats that. Now to your reviews!**

 **Fwgaltz: Yes, Mavis will appear in here, just a bit later.**

 **Angel Lightwolf: To be honest, I am unsure yet. Although Im more fore yes, since Gajeel played pretty important role in Fairy Tail, and after all, the story here is the same until Natsu was revived. So Eclipse portal and Tower of heaven exist.**

 **hateme101: Lets be honest, Gray is the most "sexy" character in the series, Natsu and Zeref are the cutest tho, am not going to back down from that opinion :D**

 **laxusdrayer2324: Yay they gonna meet! They gonna get drunk! They gonna...*cough* ehm...xD Well I mean, his creations up until Natsus revival still exist, and before that he did wander around and killed random people because of his curse, of course rumors spread out.**

 **I think this is all, if I didnt answer some questions you are free to pm me! Enjoy the story!**

* * *

„So, how did you three meet anyway?" Gray asked, desperate to break the awkward silence that hung around them up until then, not because he was interested, but they still had few hours walk in front of them, and he was getting bored.

Before Lucy could start her blabbering again though, Natsu quickly responded with neutral look. "Basically, she invaded our home, made us into her slaves, almost choked us by hugging, and somehow convinced us to do an escort mission."

Zeref chuckled at that, Gray sweat dropped, while Lucy was glaring daggers at the demon. It's not like she wanted to fall down to that forest, yes she begged them for their help, and yes she might have gotten a bit carried away with the money usage and getting Zeref to carry her bags, but it's not like any of them protested! Well, there might have been few complains coming from Zeref in the dressing shop, but he didn't look angry or annoyed. Or maybe she missed it?

She looked down on the ground, feeling a bit guilty now.

"C'mon, don't look so down." Natsu lightly patted her head, grinning in attempt to cheer her up, he didn't mean to make her feel guilty, it was supposed to be just a small joke. Guess the girl still wasn't as comfortable with them as he thought.

Lucy carefully glanced his way, noticing the cheerful smile, which made her smile in turn as well.

Meanwhile, Gray just found it amusing that the rumored Black Mage and his strongest demon got ruled over by a woman so easily, while making fun of it too. He never imagined that either of these two would ever be capable of joking around. Well, you learn something new every day.

That, of course, didn't mean he trusted them. For him, they were still the two worst villains in their history, nothing will ever change that. He sneaked a peek behind him, to see Lucy and the other two having a wonderful time without him. They were laughing together, occasionally dropping few teases here and there, along with some friendly gestures

How? That was his question. Or maybe why, he wasn't entirely sure. Why would Zeref and E.N.D. help harmless girl wandering near their home? How did this meeting happen? How did they get along? Why did they get along?

 _So it were both questions in more than one meaning._ He noted to himself.

He hoped Gramps will know what to do with this situation once they arrive. In the meantime, he just had to act this out.

* * *

He was lost in thought when they finally left the thick forest and appeared to be up on cliff with view of large town, presented by the shiny rays of the setting Sun.

"Well, lady and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Magnolia." Gray announced suddenly with proud voice. And of course, with no clothes on, completely oblivious to it. Luckily, Lucy picked it up all on their way when she noticed it lying on the ground in front of her as they walked. She was still bewildered how did someone not notice something so….obvious.

Natsu, whom was closely behind them, just stepped next to the Fairy Tail mage, curious about the view. After all, he never saw town from such close viewpoint before. Most of the things they had in their home was from the forest itself. True, sometimes he traveled around for spices, but usually not far, he had time only until his brother woke up, or he would panic if he found himself alone, Zeref was afraid of Natsu leaving him behind for some reason.

Mostly he didn't even reach any civilization, just exchanged things from merchants he met on the road. The forest was full of interesting things people were willing to pay for with more than a pocket change. So, as he looked on the town below him, the possibilities for them interested him to no end. Then again, it would probably be safer if they didn't mention Zeref's name. Considering what Lucy told them, and Gray's reaction, it might cause more than a small fuss.

He felt the stares on him as he continued to be fascinated by the sight, but he paid no attention, because he was unaware of the glow in his eyes, which was the reason he was being watched. Or maybe it was the fact that his brother was sleeping on his shoulders soundly, his butt leaning over the heavy sack Natsu was carrying. Nor Lucy or Gray understood how he was able to carry all that, then again, he was a demon. Perhaps this was like practicing with kids dumbbells for an adult man.

"Let's go, from here on, it's just a short stroll." Gray encouraged them, taking the lead yet again, this time with more confident steps, as he was almost home. He couldn't wait to see his family again. He took a long mission, so his parents will probably be worried, not to mention he will get to eat real food again. He was sure Mirajane will cook for him something special, as he was gone for so long. The mission itself wasn't difficult, but he went alone this time because his father told him to become a full fledged man, and Erza, with whom he teamed up most often with, already left that morning somewhere.

In the mission, he was supposed to find just a key to the family's life savings, which were huge since they were rich. The catch was, a dark guild stole it, and even though he beat them all up, they either refused to tell him the location of the key, told him fake information, or sent him somewhere completely else, where the key was already transported to, apparently. It was just a pointless chase after a boss, who was actually the son of the mentioned family. To say his father was shocked was an obvious fact. Gray didn't stay long enough to hear the punishment the son got, he just collected his reward and left, unsure of how family members can betray themselves. He just didn't understand the concept of it.

His family was very kind, accepting, and always helped him. Whether it was his real parents or Fairy Tail. Well, it is true that his mother passed away from illness long ago, but his father still remained, even found a new person he fell in love with, and after two years they married. Silver – his father- first asked him if Gray is alright with having a new mother, but the raven haired boy didn't protest. He liked Ur -the lady his father fell in love with-,she even taught him magic and got them a new member of their family, Lyon. Lyon never really talked about his real family, and they didn't ask, all Gray knew was that he was in search of Ur to learn ice magic, which got Gray interested as well. In the end they bonded over magic, and became like a real brothers. His father tried to learn as well, but he managed a snowball at best, although Gray heard there was some magic Silver was into, whenever he asked about it his father just changed the subject, so after some time he gave up.

Also, both Lyon and he often woke up due to cries in the night they heard, and accidentally eavesdropped that Ur had a daughter, which died at young age, because she had too much magic power since she was born. Of course, him and Lyon wanted to wipe the tears off of their mother's cheeks, and although they couldn't do it the same way their father did, they tried by being the best sons anyone can have. Plus a few pranks, but even though they got often punished for that, it usually brought on just smiles. They never took it too far. Although sometimes they are fighting over the smallest things, neither of their parents got mad. In fact, Silver was even encouraging them and betting on who was going to win. Usually, it was Gray, but it thankfully didn't cause grudges, and actually just made Lyon more motivated.

Yes, his family was truly the best. He couldn't have asked for a better one.

He was pondering about the theme so long, he didn't notice they were already standing in front of the guild door few minutes, and Natsu along with Lucy and Zeref, whom probably woke up not so long ago, his disheveled hair bit of a hint, were looking at him with weird stares, probably confused what he was hesitating about.

He coughed into his hand, a little blush appearing on his cheeks from embarrassment, as he started walking forward and opened the door slowly.

While he did that, Lucy still had mixed feelings about this. She was excited, that's for sure. But also confused, doubtful, nervous,...She couldn't believe she really stood in front of the guild she desired to join so long ago. Safely, with her keys in her hand. And it was all thanks to Zeref and E.N.D.. It was so unbelievable she wondered if this was truly real. Her eyes started to burn, and she started shaking from the thought that it weren't, it would be just too cruel. Someone put a hand on her head and messed with her hair, and she looked up with hesitation, gaping at Natsu, whom wasn't even looking at her, but staring straight, on the opening door. The door of possibilities, maybe not just for her, but for the Dragneel brothers as well, she realized.

She wiped her tears away, most of her doubts gone, noticing how the guild looked from outside. A small castle, with bell on the top and a hanging banner with the guild mark. She smiled, took Natsu's hand in her own, which he didn't protest against surprisingly, probably because he knew she needed to calm down. And as she felt his warmth when he squeezed hers back, she knew this was real. She was really standing here, in front of her dream guild, with people she thought were impossible to meet, her keys back. She wasn't afraid anymore, whatever and whoever waited behind that door, she will make sure she will impress them enough to become a member. She let go of Natsu's hand slowly, and stepped forward.

Whatever she expected to be behind that door though, definitely wasn't a flying chair, which hit her in the face the second Gray finally opened the heavy-looking door. Instinctively, she dared the one who threw it to show himself, and the instant she yelled that, the fight in the building suddenly stopped and all inside turned to stare at them. She felt ashamed for shouting at her possibly soon-to-be guild members, but after a moment of silence, they all suddenly and ran towards them. When Lucy prepared herself for the impact, Natsu pushed her along with Zeref out of the way, as they watched Gray being buried under a pile of bodies.

"Gray! You're back!"

"Gray! Finally! We were so worried about you!"

"GRAY! I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU IF YOU WILL EVER DISAPPEAR FOR SO LONG WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING AGAIN"

She could make out some sounds from the pile, along with muffled shouts from Gray himself, most likely about letting him go, which were ignored. Lucy grinned, if they were so worried about their member, indicating their kindness, she really hoped that her joining won't be impossible. When she turned to Natsu to share her excitement, he was gone. Lucy stared at the place she was him just few moments ago and panicked, quickly she ran out of the gate and spotted him along with Zeref walking away.

"Where are you going!" she shouted, sounding almost desperate, tears threatening to escape her eyes yet again. Sure, she wasn't with them for a long time, but they grew on her, and the thought of leaving them behind was just too much to bear for her. She didn't know what she was expecting, perhaps she was hoping, after she explained everything, the guild will take them in, and they won't have to part. But even for her that didn't seem rational. Fairy Tail was a light guild, Zeref and E.N.D. are their natural enemies. And explanation from a girl they barely knew probably wouldn't be enough to shatter 400 years of rumors. As they turned around, she saw it in their faces. They didn't want to part either, their expression resigned, but even they knew...

...that it just won't work this way. If they didn't want people going after them, they will have to stay in seclusion, forever.

"Our job is done here, there's no more reason for us to stay." Natsu proclaimed.

"But-," she tried to protest.

"Gray knows our names Lucy, and I do not think he will keep it to himself when he is part of a light guild, we should get out of here as soon as we can. I am sorry." Zeref tried to backup Natsu's decision. Watching as the girl slowly collapsed on the ground, tears running down her cheeks, while looking at the ground. He wasn't happy about this either, Natsu didn't look fine as well, but he doubted anyone will listen to their story. For normal people, they were villains, one of the worst that existed. There was simply no place for them. Even if they hid their names, the truth had a very cruel way to catch up to you, no matter how you tried. He didn't want to risk that, not like he was good at lying anyway.

It's not like Lucy didn't understand. In fact, it was very smart decision. Still..."Can you at least stay until I get my guild mark? I want to be able to continue on with you if they won't accept me, that is, if you will have me"

They looked at each other thoughtfully, but sighted as they both nodded in agreement and helped the girl up, trying to cheer her up with words that they might visit sometime.

Meanwhile, Gray finally got away from his friends trying to suffocate him with their hugs, looking confused as he didn't see the three where they were just a few minutes ago. He went out of the gate to notice them walking towards the guild again while laughing, wondering where did they go while he was being practically buried alive.

"And who is this?" his guild mates asked, pointing at his company.

"Those are-" he tried to explain, but Lucy interrupted him, coming with her own explanation.

"I am Lucy Heartfilia, and this is my escort, Natsu..." she pointed at the pink haired man in the front,"...and Zetsu..." she moved her finger towards the smaller raven haired one, and both of the men looked as if they were trying to hold their laugh back upon hearing the smaller one's name. "...they are brothers whom rescued me and agreed to help me get here." Lucy cheerfully declared, and after a while she added: "I was hoping to join your guild!"

The guild members looked at her confusedly as they were trying to comprehend what she said, realizing slowly what she was telling them. "Sure! It's party time! We got a new member!" they shouted, while guiding everyone inside, including the Dragneel brothers.

Both of them just went with the flow, unsure of what to do in situation like this. They watched Lucy get her guild mark on her hand, proudly showing it to them, and then celebrated with everyone else, convincing themselves that just one day in society won't hurt, no one will remember two guys, whom just stopped by for a day.

Neither of them noticed Gray walking away from the party, towards the Master's office. His parents weren't in the guild at the moment, so no one bothered him on the way. As he opened the door he saw Makarov standing in front of the window, which had view on the guilds entrance, gazing at Gray expectantly.

"Those two...I have a strange feeling about them, will you tell me who they are?" the old man asked him suspiciously.

"Actually, that's the reason why I am here. They are..."

* * *

 **I feel like after this chapter I should explain again, this isnt NaLu story, I just took their bond of Lucy relying on Natsu from the actual manga, its nothing more I swear!**

 **I hope I didnt make any mistakes, if you got any ideas or anything I can make this story better with, you are free to write them to me! Your opinions are aprreciated as well!**

 **I hope to see you way sooner than this chapter took!**

 **Alaeeerrrr! 3**


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